Disclaimer: All rights go to JRR Tolkien and Peter Jackson, respectively.
Chapter One: Of Books, Bus Stops, and Shortcuts
Alison Ashburne wondered, not for the first time, why of all the days in the year, her mother had chosen that particular week to ground her from her car as she watched the rain pour down outside the classroom window.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, and there was a flurry of movement as students stood up, collecting their things and practically running out the door, ready to enjoy their weekend.
Alison packed away her notebooks and pens more slowly, already imagining how uncomfortable she'd be waiting for the bus in the downpour, and she silently cursed her mother once again.
"Hey, Ali, you ready for the dance hall this weekend?"
Alison turned at the voice of her best friend, Lexi, to see the blonde girl waggling her eyebrows and grinning, flashing her fake ID at her.
"Lex, you know better than anyone that I'm grounded for the next three weeks," Alison said, slinging her bag over her shoulder as they exited the classroom. After five minutes, the school was already deserted, and their footsteps echoed down the polished hallway as they walked slowly towards the front double doors of the high school.
"That's like, three years," Lexi complained, making a face. "What am I supposed to do without you?"
"I don't know, maybe go with your boyfriend?" Alison suggested sarcastically, grinning.
Lexi rolled her eyes. "You know Jacob doesn't like dancing."
"I don't either, but somehow you always manage to get me to come." Alison pushed open the front doors, and the two girls stopped under the overhang of the school, listening to the rain patter on the roof for a few seconds. Alison sighed as she stared out at the soaked parking lot, already dreading her sodden walk to the bus stop.
"Are you sure you don't need a ride?" Lexi asked, noticing her friend's reluctance, but Alison shook her head.
"My mom said I have to take the bus into town," she said. "It's part of my punishment."
"I feel so bad," Lexi said, chewing on her lower lip. "I shouldn't have convinced you to sneak out to go to that concert. I had no idea—"
"Lexi, it's fine," she assured. "It was my fault I got caught, anyway. Don't blame yourself for me being a dumbass."
"Yeah, but—"
"Hey," Alison said firmly, "don't beat yourself up about it. I'll see you on Monday, all right? Enjoy your weekend." She forced herself to smile, and Lexi grinned back.
"Okay. Be safe." Lexi waved as she sprinted to her silver Ford Focus, getting drenched within seconds, and Alison dropped her smile, looking at the rain in disgruntlement.
She watched her friend drive out of the parking lot, sorely wishing she had taken her up on her offer as she pulled her jacket hood up over her head, cursing herself for not bringing an umbrella before storming out of her house that morning. After her mom had told her that she wasn't allowed to drive her car for the next three weeks and she would have to take the charter bus to get back into town, she had been so angry that she had left without even glancing at her weather app.
A part of Alison felt guilty for what she had done – lying to her mom and climbing out of her bedroom window to go to that stupid concert at the dance hall in town, and then getting caught because she had forgotten to disable the security alarm – but she was tired of being the perfect little goody two-shoes, living in the same boring, small Texas town, and doing the same boring things every night. She felt like her life was supposed to mean something more than school and sports and homework. She knew she was meant for greater things, for adventures or something of the sort, but she was stuck in the same repetitive life, like a broken record that kept playing the same part over and over again with no way out, and it pissed her off. Why couldn't her mom just understand that?
She approached the deserted bus stop, her teeth chattering from the uncomfortable chill of the October rainfall, and sat down on the bench, the awning over her head offering some shelter from the downpour. She checked her phone, seeing that the time only read 4:15, and groaned, yanking her headphones from her bag. The bus wasn't going to be there for another ten or fifteen minutes at least, and she began to form a passionate argument against her mother in her head as she jammed the earbuds in her ears and began blasting her music.
Alison gazed out across the desolate road, where the farm land looked gray and bleak in the dim light, and the sky was obscured by heavy rain clouds. Not knowing what else to do, she just stared across the road and sang out loud, not having anyone around to hear her.
After several minutes, she suddenly felt a prickle on the back of her neck, like she was being watched, and it was only then that she realized she was not alone anymore, and that an old man was now seated on the bench beside her. She started, ripping her earbuds out and feeling her face begin to burn, beyond embarrassed that this man had to experience her horrific singing.
"Oh my gosh," she said, shutting off her music and stowing away her phone in her pocket. "I am so sorry, sir—I didn't know you were there, I'm so sorry."
The old man smiled kindly at her, his eyes a piercing blue that contained wisdom beyond her own years. "Don't be sorry, my dear. I apologize for sneaking up on you, but you seemed so wrapped up in your music I didn't want to disturb you." He seemed nice enough, but that still didn't stop her mortification.
"Again, I'm sorry for that," she said, trying for a somewhat awkward smile.
"Don't be." The old man suddenly held out his hand. "I am Mr. Grey."
Alison shook his hand, saying, "Alison Ashburne."
"What a lovely name," Mr. Grey remarked, adjusting comfortably on the bench. "Very strong, very proud."
"Er, thank you," she said. Not knowing what else to say, she instead observed Mr. Grey from the corner of her eye, fiddling with the zipper on her jacket uncomfortably as he made no further attempt to speak to her.
He was dressed in a light gray suit with a matching hat, which covered his close-cropped gray hair and cast his benign, lined face into shadow. He carried a brown leather briefcase, but there was no umbrella in sight, which was odd, for he seemed perfectly dry. She wondered what such a sophisticated man was doing at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere, and her sudden curiosity goaded her back into speech.
"So…" she said awkwardly, and Mr. Grey looked at her again with those piercing eyes. "Do you, um, live around town or anything?"
"No," he replied cheerily. "I'm merely visiting."
"Family, friends?" She suddenly wished she hadn't opened her mouth again, for the scrutiny of his gaze was making her uncomfortable, and she prayed that the bus would be coming soon.
"You could say a friend." He smiled merrily, looking back out to the rain, and Alison just sat there, wary and awkward.
After they lapsed back into silence, he opened his briefcase, and Alison caught a glimpse of a strange piece of paper, almost like a weird map, before the case snapped closed again. Mr. Grey had taken out a small paperback book, worn and slightly beat up, and she felt a twinge of annoyance. She was an extreme book-lover, and it pained her to see books that had gone through abuse.
She looked closer at the faded green cover, and uttered a small gasp of pleasure as she recognized the novel. "The Hobbit!"
Mr. Grey looked at her with a sparkle of amusement. "You've read it?"
"Yes, but it was a long time ago." She frowned, remembering how much her father had loved reading it to her, and suddenly she wished she hadn't said anything. "I don't really remember it that much."
Luckily, she didn't have to listen to his response, for at that moment she saw the charter bus trundling into view down the road, and she stood quickly, slinging her bag over her shoulder and preparing to brave the rain again when Mr. Grey's voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Have you ever been on an adventure, Miss Ashburne?"
Alison turned, startled by the question. "Excuse me?"
"An adventure," he repeated. He tapped the cover of The Hobbit. "Like this."
Alison figured he must be pulling her leg, but he was looking at her in genuine curiosity. "Um…no," she replied slowly, as the bus pulled to a screeching stop in front of her. "I've only been out of this town a dozen times in my life, as lame as that sounds." She shrugged. "Never even been out of the state, either. But an adventure like Bilbo Baggins' would be fun."
She meant it sarcastically, just playing along with him, but he seemed delighted by her answer.
"Really!" His eyes twinkled with something she couldn't identify, and she smiled awkwardly as the bus doors swung open. "Perhaps there is some hope yet to come for you then, Miss Ashburne."
"Uh, all right," she said, edging closer to the bus. "Nice chat." She was about to climb aboard when his voice stopped her again, and she refrained from rolling her eyes before looking back over her shoulder.
"Oh, and Miss Ashburne?" Mr. Grey was still seated leisurely on the bench, making no move to join her as he held up his book. "Read The Hobbit again. I'm sure you will find it…inspiring."
Alison only nodded in reply, punching in her bus card and taking a seat near the front. There was only one other person on board, seated in the back and snoring with a pair of headphones on.
The bus doors swung closed, and the vehicle began to move, when Alison noticed that Mr. Grey had not gotten on the bus.
"Um, sir?" she called to the bus driver. "There's another person at this stop we need to wait for."
Though Mr. Grey had been slightly uncomfortable and annoying, he was still elderly, and Alison didn't want to leave him in the rain. However, the bus driver just gave her a strange look through his rearview mirror and said, "There's no other person at that stop, ma'am. Sorry."
"What?" she muttered. She swung around in her seat, about to point out the old man—except he wasn't there. The bench was devoid of any gray-suited, briefcase-carrying old man, as was the surrounding vicinity. It was as if Mr. Grey had simply vanished.
The bus started forward again, heading toward town, and Alison watched the stop fade away into the rain in disbelief, refusing to accept that Mr. Grey was gone. He was there. She had seen him with her own eyes, spoken to him, shaken his hand. He couldn't be gone.
But he was, and Alison didn't know what else to think except that he had left when she had gotten on the bus. Pushing back her damp hood, she settled into her seat and tried not to think of Mr. Grey again. She managed to succeed for quite a few months, but of course, fate always had other plans.
And Alison Ashburne was about to discover just what exactly her fate was.
Six Months Later
"I can't do this anymore," Alison moaned, rubbing her temples with her fingers. "I feel like my brain is fried."
"I feel you," Lexi replied through a yawn, dropping her pencil on her paper and stretching out her fingers.
"How about we stop here and regroup tomorrow?" Kyle suggested, his eyes bloodshot behind his glasses as he took a last sip from his coffee cup.
"Agreed," Victoria said, stacking up her papers and putting them into her backpack. "Same time, same place?"
The study group all mumbled in agreement, packing up their various belongings sluggishly, slow and dull from their hard afternoon of studying for finals.
Alison was the first one to get up, and she was about to leave when Lexi stopped her. "Oh, Ali, here." She pulled out a pair of dark skinny jeans from her bag and tossed them to Alison. "Thanks for letting me borrow them."
"No problem," Alison said. She was too lazy to put them in her backpack, so she just slung them over her arm as she headed out the door, waving over her shoulder to her friends.
The late April humidity clung to her skin as she crossed the empty street, leaving the coffee shop where they'd been holed up for the better part of the day behind as she hopped onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road. Night had just fallen, and the streetlamps flickered on, providing soft pools of orange light for her to walk through as she made her way home.
To her right was the small downtown square of West, Texas, everything already closed and locked up for the night except for a few restaurants and the dance hall, where she could hear the whoops and laughter of people as they danced and the rhythmic, twangy pounding of country music. To her left was the tiny park, thick with pecan trees and dark from the absence of artificial lights, and she ducked in, for she knew a path through the park that would practically lead her to her front door step.
She breathed in the fresh, clean scent of dirt and trees as she wound her way through the shortcut. After a couple minutes, she began to see the glow of house lights in the distance, and she made her way toward them until she was forced to halt abruptly.
It was as if she had run face-first into a glass door. Alison smashed her head into it, hurting her nose, and she fell back into the grass with a muffled thud, her backpack taking the brunt of her fall.
"Ow," she grunted, rubbing her nose. "What the hell?"
She felt in front of her, not seeing the thing she had run into, but after a few seconds of groping her fingers pushed up against something solid. She sat up on her knees, pushing forward still, but it was as if there was an invisible barricade in front of her, refusing to budge.
"What the hell?" she repeated. She felt to her sides, and encountered the same thing; pressing back, she connected with the same solid invisible wall.
Seized by sudden terror and panic, Alison scrambled to her feet, banging on the invisible walls, trying to find a way out. "Hello? Hello!" she yelled frantically, but she knew it was hopeless. She was still in the middle of the dark and deserted park, and she doubted that anyone would be able to hear her. "Somebody please help!"
Alison suddenly felt a blow to her stomach, as if someone had grabbed her by her navel and was pulling on her. She collapsed to the ground, still trying to scream and push as her stomach heaved. It felt as if she were being sucked into a black hole, and she clawed maniacally at the invisible walls as bright light began to flood her vision.
"Help! Help!" she screamed, and then she felt the ground split open beneath her. As Alison began to fall, she grabbed on to the first thing her hand found, which was—wow, thank God—her pants that Lexi had given back to her.
Screaming and grappling at empty air, Alison and her pants fell and fell, until she crashed into something hard and solid and blacked out. When she awoke, a pair of familiar, piercing blue eyes greeted her, and an eerily familiar voice said, "So. You have finally arrived."
Alison looked up groggily and saw Mr. Grey standing over her, looking very strange and different from how Alison remembered him. "Welcome to Middle-earth," he said.
Blackness swirled in Alison's vision, and before she passed out again, she managed to croak out one word: "Shit," before unconsciousness swallowed her once more.
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